As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
One type of information handling system is a blade server, or simply “blade.” Blades are often self-contained information handling systems designed specifically to allow the placement of multiple blades in a single enclosure or aggregation of enclosures. A blade enclosure or chassis may hold multiple blades and provide services to the various blades such as power, cooling, networking, interconnects, and management. For example, the chassis may include a plurality of power supply units configured to provide power to blades mounted in the chassis.
A blade server chassis may perform various non-core computing services. By locating these services in one place and sharing them between the blades, the overall utilization may be more efficient. One of these services includes supplying power to the blades and chassis. Information handling systems may operate over a range of DC voltages, yet power is typically delivered from utilities as AC, and at higher voltages than required by the computer. Converting the current from AC to DC may require one or more power supply units (PSUs). To ensure that the failure of one PSU does not affect the operation of the information handling system, blade servers may have one or more redundant PSUs. The PSUs of a blade chassis may provide a single power source for some or all blades within the chassis.
In certain blade chassis, it may be desirable to reduce PSU failure and/or accelerated failure. It may also be desirable to reduce the need for service calls and/or warranty costs in relation to system failures. Further, increased reliability and life expectancy may be desired in a blade chassis.